SMSes of the Day : Friday

* SECURITY fears? What rubbish! It’s blatant incompetence as usual.Those computers can’t be sent to schools because the Ministry lacks good managers!

* DEAR Swapo, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Voters will have more confidence in you if you get your logistics in order first before your announcements (Grade 10 U-turn). * I THINK the decision to protect our environment is long overdue, but why must there be destruction before our Government takes action to protect it when it may already be too late. The new rules should apply to everyone, because you get hooligans who couldn’t give a stuff about what irreversible damage they cause.Food for thought* CAN the Ministry of Education tell us the difference between the Basic Education Teachers Diploma (BETD) and the Grade 12 Certificate? If there is, can the ministry explain why the two qualifications are being evaluated equally by Unam – meaning that BETD graduates are not given credits when they register with Unam? Why does the ministry not work together with Unam and teacher colleges to synchronise the curriculum? We want the BETD recognised by Unam. When we want to further our education at Unam after our BETD qualification we have to study for another four years towards a Bachelor of Education. This amounts to seven years study in education, but without the combined reward.* I REFER to the MOJO advert placed on page five of your February 13 edition. Considering the high HIV prevalence rate in Namibia do you consider it wise to publish such an advert, which clearly promotes multiple sexual partners?* WE’VE all the minerals in Namibia, such as diamonds, uranium, copper, etc, and yet one can’t study in mining, chemical engineering or extractive metallurgy in Namibia. Please Ministry of Education you’ve got to come to the party!* IS the Minister of Agriculture aware that the King Nehale Gate to the Etosha pan is being used to circumvent the veterinary cordon gate at Oshivelo? If Etosha is part of the communal Ovamboland, why is there a checkpoint from Namutoni road to Tsumeb, likewise from Okaukuejo to Outjo? Presently the Swapo Government elite is using Etosha to market their beef south of the Red Line.Politics in general* IN Namibia, we are blessed with top-class politicians. Namibian politicians really live up to the general definition of a politician: A person who is more than willing to exploit other people for his/her own enrichment, without any feeling of remorse for his/her actions. We however do not need politicians in this country, we need loving, caring, selfless, innovative and hard-working people.* ECN must be applauded for what they are doing at Eenhana – educating the public about political tolerance and multi-party democracy. We need this sort of information in all regions.* PEOPLE, people – are we serious or honest with ourselves? Are we busy building or destroying this country? Look around you and you will see what the government of the day after 18 years has done for you and more are still to come. If you are blind to see, then don’t point the finger at the Government. Why do we have all these strikes all of a sudden? What is behind this? We must learn to be creative, as our salaries will never satisfy us. Don’t destroy the hand that feeds you and others. – Slugger* DEMOCRACY is not a gift as Swapo would want us to believe. It is a popular participatory process, which has to be continually nurtured on a sustainable basis.* DEAR stubborn leaders, NBC is for all Namibians not only for Swapo and its supporters. We are tired of Swapo rally coverage every day on the news! Are you also going to do the same this Saturday at Eenhana?* OF the 16 631 Grade 10 unsuccessful candidates denied a chance to repeat by the Swapo Government, the RDP is assured of a seat or two in Parliament, come 2009.* RDP it is true that Swapo has lost direction and vision. Just look at the biggest ever blunder the minister and the president made publicly about Grade 10 failures. These guys are tired and exhausted and have run out of ideas.* SWAPO leaders should lead by example. How many brigadiers from other tribes do we have in the NDF? What about Managing Directors at parastatals, Permanent Secretaries and the top brass of the Police? I expect the talk of tribalism to come from somewhere not Swapo leaders please! We are not blind even if we do not speak. Very soon we’ll open our mouths.Education* WHICH schools in Namibia have received computers from the ministry since the tender of March 2007 and what operating systems are used – Microsoft or open source?* SCHOOL principals are just as guilty as ministry officials. Teachers’ administration load is becoming more with no tools (computers) allocated to them. Where is the time for teaching? Mr Principal we need those new computers in your storeroom.* LEARNERS at Martin Ndumba hostel (eastern Kavango) have been without water for almost a month and a half. Worse yet, they have to make use of the dangerous Kavango River for bathing and washing their clothes. Is the line ministry aware of this? Or should one learner first be attacked by a crocodile or drown before the water problem is solved? Luckily for the learners when nature calls there are thick bushes to rely on. This is all because of a water pump which pumps water directly from the river, which is only a few metres from the said hostel, that is broken and had been reported to the Ministry of Works already. My humble advice to the regional director is: suspend activities at the aforementioned school because it is the learners’ health which is at stake here until water supply had been restored. – S Kafupi, Divundu* THERE is a certain teacher at Khomas High School who openly seduces schoolgirls and the principal is fully aware of what’s going on, but no action is taken. What is our education system coming to?* WHAT happens to the promise made by our Father of the Nation that nobody is too old for education or was it just an empty promise?* TEACHERS in remote areas are appealing to the Minister of Education to provide S&T to the teachers who are camping at schools because of floods. If it were top officials sleeping in the bushes, then they would have been provided with S&T. Why are these teachers also not eligible for food assistance provided to the flood victims of Oshakati?* HAVE the Ministry of Education and the Government ever asked themselves why many schools, and mostly schools in rural areas, do not easily attract principals and or HoDs? A certain secondary school for example, in a rural area has been advertising a HoD post for four years now but to no avail. The answer is: There is no significant difference in salary between principals and HoDs or between HoDs and ordinary teachers, therefore a teacher may remain an ordinary teacher and a HoD may remain a HoD as not many people would want more responsibilities heaped on them without significant material reward. There are also no incentives to attract good school managers let alone good teachers except unqualified ones to rural areas. Therefore the performance of pupils in these areas will remain poor.* THE principal of Gammas Primary can you please tell us why kids have to contribute so much for the school bazaar. You asked parents to send our kids to school with something every week starting February until July. Where do you think will we get the money? Sometimes our kids go to school without bread just because we don’t have money to buy it.* MINISTER of Education, why are technical subjects no longer taught at formal schools? These subjects are important to us, as they can assist us to follow careers in technical fields.* I WOULD like to bring to your attention, Nantu and Ministry of Labour and other stakeholders to the [alleged] inhuman treatment of teachers at private schools. These schools are subsidised by the Government to pay teachers’ salaries, but fail to provide benefits such as transport and housing allowance, even pension and bonus to their employees. We cannot talk about compassionate or annual leave or sick leave. No matter the length of your employment you do not accrue leave days – why? Long-serving teachers are leaving without pension.* NQA provide a speedier evaluation of the IOL qualifications* DAVID, effective teaching needs proper planning, preparations and the marking of learners’ work. Nobody in the civil service can do a talking job for eight hours. Be real.From the regions* WHY are soldiers at the Oluno base forced to eat Mahangu? Why can’t they provide an alternative meal to those who do not eat mahangu as their traditional food? While others go hungry, Owambo soldiers are laughing and enjoying the fact that their colleagues stay hungry. Is this the way you treat your troops, General Shalli?* GOVERNOR David Boois must really distribute development equally to all parts of Karas and not take everything to Berseba. – B.A.B!!!* WE have a problem with the gravel road between Okalongo and Outapi that was washed away by the flood. People can now not move between the two towns. I suggest that the RCC build a tarred road in future.* CAN the Government tell the people of Caprivi when development will come to this part of the country. The streets of Katima are in a bad state yet the town is the gateway to the SADC region.* CAN the Oshana Regional Council tell us the purpose of the mobile Police station at Eheke. A person goes and reports a problem after walking from far away but the officer on duty refuses to attend to the complaint because of a lack of transport. My question is why can’t he contact the Ondangwa Police Station to assist him in that matter? Does this mean that the Eheke Station is only for decoration?* IT’S true about the employees at Wimpy Mariental. Not only do they read newspapers but they also gossip about the customers, thinking that all of us don’t understand Nama.General* HOW many medicines will the Government still scrap from its list of medical aid payments? Most of the medical products removed are necessary for our wellbeing to perform our duties effectively and efficiently. What happens now is that we do not get all medicines prescribed due to financial constraints. The least the Government can do is pay for our medicine prescribed by doctors if it cannot reasonably increase our salaries! The prices of commodities are unaffordable!* SHAME on you Mr Hamunyela – what goes around comes around. You unprocedurally dismissed qualified and competent managers from TransNamib. I advise you to open a cuca shop rather than look for reinstatement at TransNamib.* NAPWU, we pay you monthly membership dues, but we Government employees are crying day and night about our poor salaries. Come on guys get up and speak with Government about increasing our salary, housing and transport allowance. If you can start speak with the Government this month, we will cancel our membership and bring back our members cards to your office because you do nothing to us.* DOES Nantu really care about the wellbeing of its members? If yes, is the five per cent hike really going to make a difference in our lives compared to the increase in our daily needs. Where are the Kaarondas? Why are they quiet? Don’t they see that the nation is suffering or are they only concerned about the few NBC workers and not the more than 20 000 civil servants.* I THINK the NGOs that participate in the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on HIV-AIDS 2004-2009 should in their plan of action include capacity building workshops about HIV-AIDS for all the members of Parliament. Most of our leaders do not have information about HIV-AIDS that is why they tend to be so ignorant because they are attended to by their private doctors. They don’t fear the risk of suffering stigma and discrimination in our communities.Thank you* CONGRATULATIONS to Omulunga Radio for connecting us here in Oranjemund with your radio station. We really enjoy our radio station. Keep it up Omulunga radio station we love you here.* I THINK the decision to protect our environment is long overdue, but why must there be destruction before our Government takes action to protect it when it may already be too late. The new rules should apply to everyone, because you get hooligans who couldn’t give a stuff about what irreversible damage they cause.Food for thought * CAN the Ministry of Education tell us the difference between the Basic Education Teachers Diploma (BETD) and the Grade 12 Certificate? If there is, can the ministry explain why the two qualifications are being evaluated equally by Unam – meaning that BETD graduates are not given credits when they register with Unam? Why does the ministry not work together with Unam and teacher colleges to synchronise the curriculum? We want the BETD recognised by Unam. When we want to further our education at Unam after our BETD qualification we have to study for another four years towards a Bachelor of Education. This amounts to seven years study in education, but without the combined reward.* I REFER to the MOJO advert placed on page five of your February 13 edition. Considering the high HIV prevalence rate in Namibia do you consider it wise to publish such an advert, which clearly promotes multiple sexual partners? * WE’VE all the minerals in Namibia, such as diamonds, uranium, copper, etc, and yet one can’t study in mining, chemical engineering or extractive metallurgy in Namibia. Please Ministry of Education you’ve got to come to the party! * IS the Minister of Agriculture aware that the King Nehale Gate to the Etosha pan is being used to circumvent the veterinary cordon gate at Oshivelo? If Etosha is part of the communal Ovamboland, why is there a checkpoint from Namutoni road to Tsumeb, likewise from Okaukuejo to Outjo? Presently the Swapo Government elite is using Etosha to market their beef south of the Red Line.Politics in general * IN Namibia, we are blessed with top-class politicians. Namibian politicians really live up to the general definition of a politician: A person who is more than willing to exploit other people for his/her own enrichment, without any feeling of remorse for his/her actions. We however do not need politicians in this country, we need loving, caring, selfless, innovative and hard-working people.* ECN must be applauded for what they are doing at Eenhana – educating the public about political tolerance and multi-party democracy. We need this sort of information in all regions.* PEOPLE, people – are we serious or honest with ourselves? Are we busy building or destroying this country? Look around you and you will see what the government of the day after 18 years has done for you and more are still to come. If you are blind to see, then don’t point the finger at the Government. Why do we have all these strikes all of a sudden? What is behind this? We must learn to be creative, as our salaries will never satisfy us. Don’t destroy the hand that feeds you and others. – Slugger * DEMOCRACY is not a gift as Swapo would want us to believe. It is a popular participatory process, which has to be continually nurtured on a sustainable basis.* DEAR stubborn leaders, NBC is for all Namibians not only for Swapo and its supporters. We are tired of Swapo rally coverage every day on the news! Are you also going to do the same this Saturday at Eenhana? * OF the 16 631 Grade 10 unsuccessful candidates denied a chance to repeat by the Swapo Government, the RDP is assured of a seat or two in Parliament, come 2009.* RDP it is true that Swapo has lost direction and vision. Just look at the biggest ever blunder the minister and the president made publicly about Grade 10 failures. These guys are tired and exhausted and have run out of ideas.* SWAPO leaders should lead by example. How many brigadiers from other tribes do we have in the NDF? What about Managing Directors at parastatals, Permanent Secretaries and the top brass of the Police? I expect the talk of tribalism to come from somewhere not Swapo leaders please! We are not blind even if we do not speak. Very soon we’ll open our mouths.Education * WHICH schools in Namibia have received computers from the ministry since the tender of March 2007 and what operating systems are used – Microsoft or open source? * SCHOOL principals are just as guilty as ministry officials. Teachers’ administration load is becoming more with no tools (computers) allocated to them. Where is the time for teaching? Mr Principal we need those new computers in your storeroom.* LEARNERS at Martin Ndumba hostel (eastern Kavango) have been without water for almost a month and a half. Worse yet, they have to make use of the dangerous Kavango River for bathing and washing their clothes. Is the line ministry aware of this? Or should one learner first be attacked by a crocodile or drown before the water problem is solved? Luckily for the learners when nature calls there are thick bushes to rely on. This is all because of a water pump which pumps water directly from the river, which is only a few metres from the said hostel, that is broken and had been reported to the Ministry of Works already. My humble advice to the regional director is: suspend activities at the aforementioned school because it is the learners’ health which is at stake here until water supply had been restored. – S Kafupi, Divundu * THERE is a certain teacher at Khomas High School who openly seduces schoolgirls and the principal is fully aware of what’s going on, but no action is taken. What is our education system coming to? * WHAT happens to the promise made by our Father of the Nation that nobody is too old for education or was it just an empty promise? * TEACHERS in remote areas are appealing to the Minister of Education to provide S&T to the teachers who are camping at schools because of floods. If it were top officials sleeping in the bushes, then they would have been provided with S&T. Why are these teachers also not eligible for food assistance provided to the flood victims of Oshakati? * HAVE the Ministry of Education and the Government ever asked themselves why many schools, and mostly schools in rural areas, do not easily attract principals and or HoDs? A certain secondary school for example, in a rural area has been advertising a HoD post for four years now but to no avail. The answer is: There is no significant difference in salary between principals and HoDs or between HoDs and ordinary teachers, therefore a teacher may remain an ordinary teacher and a HoD may remain a HoD as not many people would want more responsibilities heaped on them without significant material reward. There are also no incentives to attract good school managers let alone good teachers except unqualified ones to rural areas. Therefore the performance of pupils in these areas will remain poor.* THE principal of Gammas Primary can you please tell us why kids have to contribute so much for the school bazaar. You asked parents to send our kids to school with something every week starting February until July. Where do you think will we get the money? Sometimes our kids go to school without bread just because we don’t have money to buy it.* MINISTER of Education, why are technical subjects no longer taught at formal schools? These subjects are important to us, as they can assist us to follow careers in technical fields.* I WOULD like to bring to your attention, Nantu and Ministry of Labour and other stakeholders to the [alleged] inhuman treatment of teachers at private schools. These schools are subsidised by the Government to pay teachers’ salaries, but fail to provide benefits such as transport and housing allowance, even pension and bonus to their employees. We cannot talk about compassionate or annual leave or sick leave. No matter the length of your employment you do not accrue leave days – why? Long-serving teachers are leaving without pension.* NQA provide a speedier evaluation of the IOL qualifications * DAVID, effective teaching needs proper planning, preparations and the marking of learners’ work. Nobody in the civil service can do a talking job for eight hours. Be real.From the regions * WHY are soldiers at the Oluno base forced to eat Mahangu? Why can’t they provide an alternative meal to those who do not eat mahangu as their traditional food? While others go hungry, Owambo soldiers are laughing and enjoying the fact that their colleagues stay hungry. Is this the way you treat your troops, General Shalli? * GOVERNOR David Boois must really distribute development equally to all parts of Karas and not take everything to Berseba. – B.A.B!!! * WE have a problem with the gravel road between Okalongo and Outapi that was washed away by the flood. People can now not move between the two towns. I suggest that the RCC build a tarred road in future.* CAN the Government tell the people of Caprivi when development will come to this part of the country. The streets of Katima are in a bad state yet the town is the gateway to the SADC region.* CAN the Oshana Regional Council tell us the purpose of the mobile Police station at Eheke. A person goes and reports a problem after walking from far away but the officer on duty refuses to attend to the complaint because of a lack of transport. My question is why can’t he contact the Ondangwa Police Station to assist him in that matter? Does this mean that the Eheke Station is only for decoration? * IT’S true about the employees at Wimpy Mariental. Not only do they read newspapers but they also gossip about the customers, thinking that all of us don’t understand Nama.General * HOW many medicines will the Government still scrap from its list of medical aid payments? Most of the medical products removed are necessary for our wellbeing to perform our duties effectively and efficiently. What happens now is that we do not get all medicines prescribed due to financial constraints. The least the Government can do is pay for our medicine prescribed by doctors if it cannot reasonably increase our salaries! The prices of commodities are unaffordable! * SHAME on you Mr Hamunyela – what goes around comes around. You unprocedurally dismissed qualified and competent managers from TransNamib. I advise you to open a cuca shop rather than look for reinstatement at TransNamib.* NAPWU, we pay you monthly membership dues, but we Government employees are crying day and night about our poor salaries. Come on guys get up and speak with Government about increasing our salary, housing and transport allowance. If you can start speak with the Government this month, we will cancel our membership and bring back our members cards to your office because you do nothing to us.* DOES Nantu really care about the wellbeing of its members? If yes, is the five per cent hike really going to make a difference in our lives compared to the increase in our daily needs. Where are the Kaarondas? Why are they quiet? Don’t they see that the nation is suffering or are they only concerned about the few NBC workers and not the more than 20 000 civil servants.* I THINK the NGOs that participate in the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on HIV-AIDS 2004-2009 should in their plan of action include capacity building workshops about HIV-AIDS for all the members of Parliament. Most of our leaders do not have information about HIV-AIDS that is why they tend to be so ignorant because they are attended to by their private doctors. They don’t fear the risk of suffering stigma and discrimination in our communities.Thank you * CONGRATULATIONS to Omulunga Radio for connecting us here in Oranjemund with your radio station. We really enjoy our radio station. Keep it up Omulunga radio station we love you here.